Site Mobile Navigation

New Outbursts Mark Chesimard Trial

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996.
To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems.
Please send reports of such problems to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

For the second day in a row, Joanne D. Chesimard and Fred Hilton were escorted out of a Federal courtroom several times yesterday after they repeatedly shouted complaints and epithets at the judge presiding at their trial on bank robbery charges.

Mrs. Chesimard's lawyer, Evelyn Williams, was cited for contempt by the judge, Lee P. Gagliardi, when she tried to walk out of the courtroom and then defied the judge's order to return to the defense table.

The trial, which began Tuesday, was eventually adjourned until 9 A.M. today, without having gone any further than it had on the first day.

The two defendants, identified by the police as members of the Black Liberation Army, called the judge a “racist” and an “executioner,” told him to jump out the window, hurled obscenities at him and shouted about a “police informer” while a panel of 111 prospective jurors listened.

Mrs. Chesimard and Mr. Hilton were removed from the courtroom on Foley Square four times Tuesday after similar inicidents. Judge Gagliardi then told their lawyers the defendants would be bound and gagged, or barred, if they refused to behave properly. The lawyers declined to choose, and Judge Gagliardi chose for them, saying he would bar the defendants from the courtroom. He also warned Miss Williams about a contempt citation when she walked out of the court‐room.

But yesterday, apparently ignoring his orders of the previous day, Judge Gagliardi allowed Mrs. Chesimard and Mr. Hilton to be present while a new panel of jurors was brought in.

The judge said he had dismissed the previous day's panel of 150 because he thought they might have been “prejudiced” by the “goings‐on” they had seen.

Miss Williams was also present, although Judge Gagliardi had called in another lawyer, Howard Jacobs, to be a “standby” in case Miss Williams did not reappear. “I feel like Tug McGraw,” Mr. Jacobs said, referring to the Mets' rëlief pitcher.

The defendants behaved exactly as they had Tuesday. As soon as the clerk began calling the names of prospective jurors to take seats in the jury box, Mrs. Chesimard began shouting that the trial was unfair because the judge had denied defense requests for more preparation time.

“When it comes down to Mitchell and Stans, you act like an errand boy, but when it comes down to us, you act like an executioner,” she cried out at one point. She was referring to the trial of John N. Mitchell and Maurice Stans, two former Cabinet officials, which Judge Gagliardi recently postponed at the strong urging of the United States Court of Appeals.

At each outburst Judge Gagliardi sternly but calmly ordered her to be still. When she refused, he ordered her escorted out by marshals. As she left, Mr. Hilton would take up a similar refrain until he, too, was removed.

This happened twice. The first time, the lawyers conferred with their clients after 10 minutes arid the defendants were then allowed to return. The second time, the defendants were out about 25 minutes.

It was after the second interruption that Miss Williams and Judge Gagliardi—who had instructed the lawyer several times to be quiet—clashed. Miss Williams had started toward the rear of the courtroom, as she had dons, the previous day, when the judge said:

“Marshal, lock the doors.”

Door Blocked

Miss Williams stood at the door, which was blocked by a marshal. When one of her associates strode to her side, the judge said a bit more loudly, “Everybody remain in their seats!”

He ordered her back to the counsel table. “I refuse,” she said. He held her in contempt.

Miss Williams stood silent for a few seconds. Then she asked for a five‐minute conference with her client. She left the courtroom for half an hour. She returned with the two defendants, as well as with Robert Bloom, Mr. Hilton's lawyer, who has been relatively quiet throughout the proceedings.

The judge then adjourned for the day, without making it clear whether Mrs. Chesimard and Mr. Hilton would be permitted in court when the trial resumed.

The two are charged with the armed theft of $3,700 from a Bronx branch of the Manufactuers Hanover Trust Company on Sept. 29, 1972. Mrs. Chesimard also faces trial in the slaying last May of a New Jersey state trooper on the New Jersey Turnpike.

A version of this archives appears in print on December 6, 1973, on Page 38 of the New York edition with the headline: New Outbursts Mark Chesimard Trial. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe